In Defense of Vince Carter (or the top 3 dunks of all time, according to anyone BUT the Toronto media)

I've got this morning routine I go through, every morning.

I wake up at 5:45ish, I make some breakfast, and then I sit down, I turn on the T.V. and I flip back and forth between "19 Kids and Counting" and "Sportsdeskcentre".

So the other morning, in between the Duggar family singing their ridiculous birthday song and skydiving for Jesus, I flipped to Sportscentre and saw this:

Yeah, that was pretty good.

But lets face it, Blake Griffin is jumping over Kendrick Perkins, and Perkins' vertical-jump-ability is about 5 inches, maybe 5 & 1/2, on a good day.

It is an impressive replay dunk. Griffin is exuding that sense of purpose that every great dunk has (seriously, there just seems to be a singular sense of "this is going into the fucking net and nothing is going to stop me" surrounding every solid dunk shown on replay).

But I was curious....

It's one thing when Jay Onrait (a.k.a. Bell Media's attempt to create a Canadian Joel McHale; an attempt at which they succeeded but unfortunately have no idea how to capitalize on) calls a dunk kick-ass awesome, but another thing when my nardcore (wolfman was nardcore) NBA friends like it.

So I asked 4 separate NBA superfan friends of mine to name the 5 best dunks of all time.

And what came back surprised me.

None of the dunks belonged to V.C., to Vinsanity, to Air Canada...

And it got me thinking as to why.

At first I assumed that the 4 people I asked were Toronto fans, and weren't able to forgive Vince for his transgressions towards my fair city. So I asked 12 more basketball fans.

All based in Toronto.

That's 80 votes in total.

And Vince Carter only showed up 7 times.

So I looked to Canadian basketball experts... and found this:

1. SPORTSNET

Paul Jones wrote an entire article about how others (mostly Dominique Wilkins) regard Griffin's dunk as a "jam" rather than a "dunk". In the article he mentions V.C.'s multiple "jams" before going on to poll his readers on which dunk is the best "poster dunk" of all time: Griffin vs. Perkins, Kevin Johnson vs. Hakeen Olajuwon, Tom Chambers vs. Mark Jackson, Dr. J vs. Bill Walton, or John Starks vs. the Bulls.

The poll doesn't count anything Vinsanity ever did. Which is weird, because TSN did...

2. TSN

Apparently TSN did a "10 best in game dunks" list right the same day I saw the Blake Griffin highlight. But I missed it because I was probably driving to work.

But Vince is on it.

And he's only 3rd.

But he wasn't a Raptor for the dunk.

And it's between Sportsnet's #1 & #2 dunks.

So to me, at least, it looks like TSN is ignoring V.C.'s performance whilst with Toronto. And quite frankly, that's when he was best.

*****

So where does that leave us?

Well, scour all Toronto media out there and you'll find 3 dunks that always fall on the "best of all time" list.

And, on average, Air Canada isn't involved with any of them.

So to shut me up, below are the 3 best dunks ever, as per Toronto media and fans (the fans being my NBA fan friends, who are Philipino, so you know they know what they're talking about). And beside them, a better Vince Carter dunk. You be the judge, but if you ask me, Toronto fans, it's time to cut V.C. some slack. He's a pansy douchey asshole, sure, but man could he dunk.

3. Dr. J vs. Bill Walton VERSUS Vince Carter vs. Tim Duncan

WINNER: Sorry Dr. J, but for dunking in traffic, I have to give this to Carter.

2. Michael Jordan vs. free throw line VERSUS Vince Carter vs. his thigh and knee

I'm sorry MJ, you're awesome and all, but... um... V.C. is better (in a non-game environment, of course)

1. The aforementioned Blake Griffin "Best Dunk Ever" VERSUS Vince Carter vs. french guy

Seriously... this shit actually happened...

Any Torontonian who thinks V.C. was an asshole, a douchebag, a cunt... well I agree.

But the man could dunk.